Katie Nguyen

Katie Nguyen was just two years old when she and her family were forced to flee the political turmoil in her native Vietnam. She was, in the late 1970s, one of the now famous “Boat People”.

But she was one of the lucky ones. Rescued by the predecessor to the IOM, she was cared for in a Hong Kong refugee centre then moved to Britain where she was housed and educated. Nguyen put that education to good use and began a career as a news reporter.

Today she is a highly respected journalist working within the Thompson Reuters organization reporting from East Africa, Southeast Asia and other global hotspots. But she hasn’t forgotten her childhood experience. In fact, it infuses most of her work and she now concentrates on reporting humanitarian issues such as famine, climate change and natural disasters.